South Asian Youth Conference 2017

Venue: Kabul, Afghanistan

Date: 15th-19th April, 2017

The South Asian Youth Conference was born out of a vision for a peaceful South Asia, led by young leaders. It is a journey of building capacity, conversations and (most importantly) connections between youth across borders.

Over the years, we are becoming a family of leaders who can decisively contribute to shaping the future of South Asia. After starting in 2011 (Bangalore), we travelled to Islamabad (2012), Khatmandu (2013), Online (2014 and 16) and Colombo (2015).

And now, the movement comes to Afghanistan!!!!

South Asian Youth Conference (SAYC) 2017, Kabul will highlight the shared interests of youth across South Asian countries in art and culture, gender mainstreaming and its interpretations in South Asian context, and violence and youth in South Asia to build a more peaceful and culturally diverse region and promote economically strong ties among South Asian countries.

Program Overview

The South Asian Youth Conference (SAYC) Kabul 2017, will be a three-day event, which has been designed to be dynamic, positive space where 100 youth delegates from across South Asia can interact and exchange mutually-beneficial ideas. It will be a platform to allow the youth to showcase and express fruitful cooperation and coordination in promoting peace, equal rights for all, culture and diversity through art and end to all kinds of violence against youth.

All thematic days will include workshops, panel discussions, guest speakers and working-groups to cover centric themes of:
1)    Art and culture;
2)    Gender mainstreaming and its interpretations in South Asian context;
3)    Violence and youth.

All days will start with morning reflections and setting expectations; followed by panel discussions and workshops with experts and other activities. Each panel discussion will invite experts from diverse backgrounds to bring in a variety of perspectives on every topic.

Unconference Sessions

Everyday after lunch, at unconference sessions we will invite participants to conduct discussions and workshops on topics they are working on or are passionate about. All the participants will be divided in to families of 10-15 led by a family leader. Each night after dinner, families could share with each other how their day was, what they liked the most, etc to build stronger relations among participants. Eventually, we hope that every evening will conclude with music jams and singing sessions. In our experience, family time often continue till late night in form of passionate debates on politics, culture, justice, arts and politically-incorrect discussions. This is environment we hope to cultivate at #SAYC2017Kabul.

Deadline: 5th March, 2017

Official link: http://saycentral.org/2017/